Assessment of clinical value of Bernstein test and attempts of its modification

Bernstein test has been applied for over 30 years in the diagnosis of the causes of pyrosis. Its drawback is a considerable percentage of false positive results in healthy persons, caused by a too large amount of 0.1 M HCl given. Presented in the paper are studied results in 34 patients with symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), and in 23 healthy persons in which into the body of the esophagus and into the cardia was given alternately 0.1 M HCl and 0.15 M NaCl at a speed of 0.8 cm3.min-1. During the testing the complaints reported by the patients were recorded, and by means of polyphysiograph the spasms of the body of the esophagus were recorded and morphologically assessed. In addition, in 12 volunteers of 23 healthy persons Bernstein classic test was carried out by giving them alternately 0.1 M HCl and 0.15 M NaCl at a speed of 0.8 cm3 x min-1. The testing carried out shows that a reduction in the amount of acid given in Bernstein test causes a decrease in the percentage of false positive results in healthy persons. HCl infusion into the body of the esophagus and into the cardia in patients with symptoms of GERD caused pathological motility in the body of the esophagus. The most frequent anomaly were multipeaked spasms, which can be an additional diagnostic criterion of this disease.